An invitation-only sale that started July 16 opened to the public Monday, August 3, and the store has hired a liquidator to handle the closing. While no final date has been set for the closure, the store's owner Cort Kirkley said the store may remain open into early September for Labor Day weekend.

The stock for Bassett Furniture Industries, traded on the Nasdaq stock exchange as BSET, has seen substantial drops since trading around $16 in early 2007. The stock closed July 30 at a price of just $2.43.

"Since what has happened this past fall, it's been a tough time for the entire industry," says Kirkley, whose company, Longview Designs, owns four Bassett stores including the Seminole Trail location.

10 comments

you know come to think of it, I bet they still make money on this sale.

travel lite August 2nd, 2009 | 12:47am

I got a letter in the mail that said I needed the letter to get in. kinda like a ticket. made me feel special. now I don't wanna go

John August 26th, 2009 | 10:40am

BUYERS BEWARE!!!!! Avoid this sleezy going out of business sale! The prices listed on the furniture are marked up dramatically over list so that they can give you a big, fake, discount. A couch I looked at showed a price on it over $3000. I went to the Bassett website and it was listed for $1399. The model number is 3408-62 if you'd like to check it out for yourself. I found the same Bassett product on furnituredealdirect.com for $979 after a Google search with the model #.

If your thinking of going to this sale, don't! It's used car salemen brought in from other locations to rip you off. The sales person I talked to told me they were from Ashville, NC.

Lauren August 3rd, 2009 | 9:06am

we designed and bought a couch through Basset. It doesn't surprise me that they are closing. The quality of the couch is not great. It arrived with a broken beam and they outsource their repairs. 6 weeks later the couch was repaired but they did not give us a loaner couch or give us any sort of deal to make us a repeat customer.

Miss boo! August 26th, 2009 | 2:58pm

@Jack - Thanks for letting people know. I have no plans to shop there myself for other reasons, but I'm sure other people would be happy to know what's going on.

It reminds me of the women's clothing stores that do the same mark-up sales scheme. Claim they're having a sale, but when you look at the price tag it's been doubled or even tripled. So the "sale" price winds up being the same as the original pre-sale cost. Maybe even more, actually.

I guess there must be people out there who are either so math illiterate or oblivious that they don't even notice. They just pay the price and think they're getting some big discount. Shows the failure of the school system, and how dumb people gotten!

Miss boo! August 26th, 2009 | 2:59pm

^^^

Correction:

"and how dumb people HAVE gotten!" Typed so fast I skipped a word....

Doug August 1st, 2009 | 9:19am

I don't think it's quite fair to pick and choose who the "major players" for furniture in Charlottesville are. What about Classic Furniture? What about Artful Lodger? If you're going to give everybody free press, do so evenly. And I hardly consider "Ryal's" to be anything shaking up the local furniture market. The store looks like a permanent yard sale and is filthy. Again, why not mention other antiques folks? You guys sure do seem to pick and choose...

Chatty Kathy August 7th, 2009 | 2:33am

travel lite, you are so correct. I stopped by the store during their so-called invitation only sale(I didn't have the letter in question) but, of course, they let me and my husband in anyway. I know that Bassett is a special order furniture company, but I had thought that since they were closing the store they would be selling of the "sample" furniture in the store. All the furniture had handwritten price tags with what appeared to be the MSRP times two. Then a pushy salesperson would whip out a calculator and give you a "super special store closing discount" but you still couldn't buy the item, it had to be ordered and delivered or picked up in Richmond. I then went home and looked up their website to find the chair was on sale for less than the super special store closing discount...If you can't buy the furniture that's in the store, I'm wondering what the "nothing held back" signs are supposed to mean. Ripoff, perhaps?

wangitus(the wondermonkey) August 13th, 2009 | 12:16pm

If you really want a story why not investigate the sleazy sales practice of not putting the sales price on the item. It seems to me that by making you ask for it you are forced to engage with a salesperson.. which is why nobody likes to shop for furniture in the first place.

Why not find out if the "sales" price is really a "sale" or not?

Chtty kathy has already done some of the work for you.

Shady business practices deserve at least as much press as the free advertising this store is getting from the article.